Rylan Clark appears to have skipped his elevator interview with Israel’s Eurovision entry Eden Golan.
The TV presenter, 35, who is part of fronting the BBC’s Eurovision coverage, has been interviewing the contestants in an elevator for the contest’s TikTok page.
However, when it came time for Eden’s elevator interview, Rylan was nowhere to be seen and she instead answered questions from an automated voice.
Israel’s participation in the Eurovision has been controversial this year with some believing the country should not be included given the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
While it is unclear why Rylan was not present for the interview, fans on social media have speculated the host may have been making a political statement.
Rylan Clark appears to have skipped his elevator interview with Israel’s Eurovision entry Eden Golan
When it came time for Eden’s elevator interview, Rylan was nowhere to be seen and she instead answered questions from an automated voice
Some users wrote: ‘So even Rylan did not want to be with her’… ‘Love how Rylan refused to film with her.’
‘Why didn’t she get interviewed by Rylan?’… ‘Not Rylan refusing to film with her’… ‘Not Rylan refusing to do Eden Golan’s elevator interview.’
MailOnline has contacted representatives of Rylan Clark for comment.
The European Broadcasting Union decided to allow Israel to participate, with the Deputy Director General Jean Philip De Tender commenting that ‘The Eurovision Song Contest is a music event…not a competition between nations or governments.’
Golan made it through to the final following a public vote after thousands of protestors demonstrated in Malmo calling for her to be excluded from the competition.
The 20-year-old singer took to the stage in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest to sing the emotional Hurricane, which was reworked from a previous track called October Rain, believed to reference the Hamas attacks on Israel.
She opened with a back bend, before launching into her song and received claps and cheers from the audience while dressed in a flowing sand-coloured dress.
It comes after Golan was ordered to stay in her hotel room earlier today by her country’s national security agency as thousands of pro-Palestine protesters called for her to be excluded from the competition.
Rylan, who is part of fronting the BBC ‘s Eurovision coverage, has been interviewing the contestants in an elevator for the contest’s TikTok page
Golan made it through to the final following a public vote after thousands of protestors demonstrated in Malmo calling for her to be excluded from the competition
Golan was booed by some of the spectators watching rehearsals on Wednesday and there were reportedly shouts of ‘free Palestine’.
It was reported earlier that Israel’s national security agency Shin Bet had warned Golan not to leave her hotel room except for performances because Malmo was anticipating the wave of pro- Palestinian demonstrations.
The prediction was correct, with as many as 5,000 people taking to the city’s streets today, including the young Swede – who was pictured wearing a keffiyeh, a black and white shawl commonly used to show support for Palestine, around her body in the centre of the crowd within a sea of Palestinian flags.
‘Young people are leading the way and showing the world how we should react to this,’ Greta Thunberg told Reuters news agency. She refused to comment on why she had joined the protest, only saying it was ‘good’ as the march took place.
During the demonstrations, smoke canisters in the colours of the Palestinian flag were set off and protesters, some of whom have dogs, young children and bicycles with them, were carrying signs displaying images of Gaza civilians who have been injured amid the Hamas-Israel conflict.
While it is unclear why Rylan was not present for the interview, fans on social media have speculated the host may have been making a political statement
Other banners displayed messages including ‘welcome to Genocide song contest’ and ‘stop using Eurovision to whitewash Israeli crimes’.
The Hamas attack saw some 1,200 people in Israel killed and around 250 kidnapped by gunmen and taken back into Gaza. Since then, Israeli attacks on the coastal territory have resulted in over 34,000 deaths and a humanitarian catastrophe.
There is high security around the delegations from all the countries, according to Malmo police. ‘We’re keeping a bit of an extra eye on Israel of course, because of the situation,’ Lotta Svensson, a police incident commander, told Reuters on Sunday.
The EBU, which organises the event, has resisted calls for Israel to be excluded but asked the country to modify the lyrics of its original song ‘October Rain’.
Despite the fears over her safety, Ms Golan says she has received a lot of support and hasn’t seen any negative comments about her previous song October Rain.
Commentators thought some of the original lyrics, like ‘There is no air left to breathe’ and ‘They were all good children, every one of them’, were about victims of the Hamas attack and therefore was deemed too political.
‘I was kind of shocked when the European Broadcasting Union didn’t approve the song,’ Ms Golan said.
‘I don’t think the first version was political. The song is about a girl going through her own problems, her own emotions. It wasn’t anything to do with October 7.’
At first, the Israeli state-owned TV network Kan, which supplied the song, said it would rather Eden dropped out of the competition than change the lyrics.
Eden Golan of Israel celebrated gaining a place in the final during the second semi-final at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo
The 20-year-old singer took to the stage to sing the emotional song: Hurricane
The song Hurricane was reworked from a previous track called October Rain, believed to reference the Hamas attacks on Israel
It was only after an intervention by the country’s President Isaac Herzog, who called for the ‘necessary adjustments’, that it relented.
Ms Golan told the Mail that the controversy ‘caught me off guard’.
She said: ‘I was shocked and confused. But when they said we had to change the lyrics, I said: ‘Let’s do everything possible to make it happen.’
‘I feel like us participating in Eurovision this year is very important, and has much more meaning than any other year.’
After several revisions, October Rain was renamed as Hurricane and now tells the story of a woman emerging from a personal crisis.
Musically, it’s the same song but the lyrics are more generic, the references to the massacre replaced with phrases like ‘every day, I’m losing my mind’ and ‘I’m still broken from this hurricane’.
The end of the song, which Golan sings in Hebrew, has also been altered.
Golan was ordered to stay in her hotel room by her country’s national security agency as thousands of pro-Palestine protesters demonstrated in Malmo, calling for her to be excluded from the competition
The original pay-off, which had references to poisoned air and dead children have been changed to: ‘No need for big words, only prayers. Even if it’s hard to see, you always leave me one small light.’
The singer – who arrived in the city last week sporting a yellow pin, symbolising support for the release of hostages held by Hamas – insists that she is safe in Malmo despite the threats against her.
‘I’m getting a lot of love and support from my family and from the professional team that has become like a family.’
She added: ‘Protests are of course not pleasant,but I can’t wait to be there on stage and try to make people feel something in the three minutes that I have. I’m very focused in my mission.’
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